Because It Is There: A Zero Emissions Odyssey

I realised whilst speaking to a few people at this years Cycle Show over at Earls Court that a few of that there are a few things that i haven’t really spoken about, to do with my expedition. Namely, the origins, hope it all came about, why i chose the name, what inspired the journey, etc, etc. So in the upcoming days and weeks i’ll be posting tidbits of information to help you guys garner information about me and the expedition.

So with out much further adoo….why i chose the expedition title.

When most people see the title of the expedition they presume that i simple chose a famous quote and used it as the title of the expedition. This is of course could be true but the reason for choosing it stems from my childhood. Let me explain. From the age of 2 i grew up in the small village of Mobberley in the middle of the Cheshire countryside. The village is pretty small and everybody pretty much knows (or at least use to) know everybody. With only a couple of shops, a church and a few country pubs, it’s fair to say that Mobberley is quite place and a great place to grow up as a kid.

One of my earliest memories is being sat on the floor of the assembly hall at primary school and being told by my headteacher about this man who climbed a mountain. Of course this made no sense to me at such a young age. I do however remember, remembering the name, Mallory. It must have been a couple of years later that i was sat in the local church with the rest of my class that, bored, i started looking around at the many different stone carvings and stain glass windows. One window that caught my attention, was the window below.

Those words made me extremely intrigued to learn more about this man and i so i spent the next few years trying to learn as much as possible about George Leigh Mallory. Through my research i learn’t that although Mallory only spent a few of his younger years (up until the age of 8, i think) in the village i live in, Mobberley. I also learn’t that Mallory spent the first few years of his childhood messing around in the same rivers and woodland that i would run around and play in as a kid. Mallory’s father was the local clergyman at one point in time. Mallory is so deep rooted in the local community that even when i joined the local scout group there was a copy of his famous portrait on the wall and even the scout groups emblem incorporated Mt Everest in homage to the local hero.

So when i told a friend about my plans early on and with a puzzled look on his face, i gave the (slightly tongue cheek) answer ‘Because It’s There’. As soon as the words left my mouth i knew that i had to name my expedition after his famous quote.

“The first question you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, ‘what is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?’ and my answer at once must be, ‘It is no use’. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”